The Secret Gospel
of Mark
The
secret gospel of Mark was discovered in 1958 by Professor Morton Smith
of Columbia University when he was cataloguing old manuscripts at
the ancient Greek Orthodox monastery of Mar Saba about twelve miles
southeast of Jerusalem. One of the monks, probably around 1750, copied
an ancient letter from Clement of Alexandria (200 AD) on two blank
pages of a book dated 1646. Clement wrote extensively, but only four
of his books have survived to present times and this is the only known
copy of the many letters he must have written. Morton Smith photographed
the letter and wrote two books and many papers about his findings.
The contents of Clement’s letter are very controversial.
Clement’s
letter was in response to a request by another church official called
Theodorus, to explain how the infamous gnostic Christian sect called
the Carpocratians surreptitiously obtained the Secret Gospel which
the church of Alexandria was supposed to be safeguarding. The Carpocratians
believed that reincarnated souls were doomed to migrate from body
to body until they had experienced every type of life and sex act,
only then could their souls stop transmigrating and ascend to heaven.
They created their own gospel, now “lost” (destroyed), that was based
on the Secret Gospel of Mark. According to Theodorus, the Carpocratian’s
bible contained the words “naked man with naked man” which
implied that Jesus transmitted secret knowledge during sexual initiation
ceremonies with his apostles. Theodorus then wrote to Clement to ask
him what the text of secret gospel actually said. In his book, “The
Secret Gospel”, Morton Smith wrote the following translation of Clement’s
reply to Theodorus:
The Sacred Geometry
Story
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